Lyrics to
The Promised Land

This version of The Promised Land was released by The Band in 1973.

Visit the The Band Lyrics profile at Decade Lyrics - it has the The Promised Land lyrics as well as the rest of the songs by The Band.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Band or about the 1970s in general.

I left my home in Norfolk Virginia
California on my mind
I boarded that Greyhound
Rode in into Raliegh on across Caroline

Stopped in Charlotte to by pass Rockhill
We never was a minute late
We were ninty miles out of Atlanta by sundown
Rollin’ out of Georgia state

We had motor trouble that turned into a struggle
Halfway across Alabam
And that bow broke down
And left us stranded in downtown Birmingham

Right away I bought a through train ticket
Got across Mississippi clean
And I was on that Midnight Flyer out of Birmingham
Smokin’ into New Orleans

Somebody help me get out of Louisiana
Help me get to Houston Town
There are people there who care a little ’bout me
And won’t put the poor boy down

Georgia born, they bought me a silk suit
And put luggage in my hand
And woke up high over Albuquerque
On a jet to the promised land

Workin’ on a T-bone ala cartee
Flyin’ over to the Golden State
When the pilot told us in thirteen minutes
He would set us at the terminal gate

Swing low chariot, come down easy
Taxi to the terminal door
Cut your engines and cool your wings
And let me make it to the telephone

Los Angeles, give me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater four ten o nine
Tell all the folks back home
It’s the promised land callin’
And the poor boy is on the line

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The Band has released many songs over the years besides The Promised Land. The Band released songs from 1968 to 2002 spanning across albums like Music From Big Pink, The Band, Stage Fright, Cahoots, Moondog Matinee, Northern Lights - Southern Cross, Islands, Jericho, High On The Hog, Jubilation, and The Last Waltz. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Band.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1973 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and The Promised Land by The Band

When you decide to study the lyrics to The Promised Land, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1973 song by The Band. Some of the lyrics to The Promised Land have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only The Band and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to The Promised Land if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to The Promised Land" means the words set to the music of The Promised Land, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Band. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to The Promised Land and the lyrics to The Promised Land are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Band who came here looking just for the lyrics to The Promised Land, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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